High-efficiency deterministic Josephson vortex ratchet

We investigate experimentally a Josephson vortex ratchet--a fluxon in an asymmetric periodic potential driven by a deterministic force with zero time average. The highly asymmetric periodic potential is created in an underdamped annular long Josephson junction by means of a current injector providing an efficiency of the device up to 91%. We measured the ratchet effect for driving forces with different spectral content. For monochromatic high-frequency drive the rectified voltage becomes quantized. At high driving frequencies we also observe chaos, subharmonic dynamics, and voltage reversal due to the inertial mass of a fluxon.     

Cross Conjugated Polyenes Derived from 2-Vinyl-butadiene: Electronic States of their Radical Cations,and Triplet Energy

The doublet states of the radical cations of the cross conjugated polyenes 4,4-dimethyl-1-methylidene-2,5-cyclohexadiene 2 and its bis-derivative 1 have been investigated by photoelectron spectroscopy and by electronic spectroscopy of \documentclass{article}\pagestyle{empty}\begin{document}$ \rm {1}^{+\kern-4pt {.} } $\end{document}⁺, prepared at 77 K in an electron scavenging matrix by γ-irradiation. Simultaneous consideration of the spectral results shows \documentclass{article}\pagestyle{empty}\begin{document}$ \rm {1}^{+\kern-4pt {.} } $\end{document} to be the second hydrocarbon molecular cation (after 2,2-dimethyl isoindene) which possesses a first excited doublet state (D₁) of non-Koopmans nature (²B_3g). The first Koopmans-type excited state (²B_2g) expected from PE. spectroscopy lies, however, very close in energy. In addition T₁ of 1 was observed by electron energy loss spectroscopy at 2.0±0.1 eV. Application of the ‘SDT-equation’ predicts for this state only 1.05 eV; there is at present no reasonable explanation for this failure.     

Vesicle Origami: Cuboid Phospholipid Vesicles Formed by Template-Free Self-Assembly

Phospholipid liposomes are archetypical self-assembled structures. To minimize the surface tension, the vesicles typically are spherical. Deciphering the bilayer code, the basic physical interactions between phospholipids would allow these molecules to be utilized as building blocks for novel, non-spherical structures. A 1,2-diamidophospholipid is presented that self-assembles into a cuboid structure. Owing to intermolecular hydrogen bonding, the bilayer membranes form an exceptionally tight subgel packing, leading to a maximization of flat structural elements and a minimization of any edges. These conditions are optimized in the geometrical structure of a cube. Surprisingly, the lateral surface pressure in the membrane is only one third of the value typically assumed for a bilayer membrane, questioning a long-standing rule-of-thumb.     

Multifragmentation and the phase transition: A systematic study of the multifragmentation of 1A GeV Au, La and Kr

A systematic analysis of the multifragmentation (MF) in fully reconstructed events from 1A GeV Au, La and Kr collisions with C has been performed. Detailed comparisons of the various fragment properties are presented as a function of excitation energy, E*_th. The charged particle multiplicity from MF stage shows a saturation beyond E*_th ∼ 8 MeV/nucleon for Kr. The universal behavior of intermediate mass fragment yields and of the size of the largest fragment is observed only for Au and La when scaled with size of the system. The Kr data are found to lack this property. Moments of the fragment size distribution show that the Kr MF is different than the MF of Au and La. A power law behavior is observed for Au and La with exponent τ>2, while for Kr τ<2. The results are compared with the statistical multifragmentation model (SMM). A single value of all the parameters of the model fits the data for all the three systems. The breakup of Au and La is consistent with a continuous phase transition. The data indicate that both E*_th and the isotope ratio temperature T _Hc-DT decrease with increase in system size at the critical point. The breakup temperature obtained from SMM also shows the same trend as seen in data. This trend is attributed primarily to the increasing Coulomb energy with finite size effects playing a smaller role. The percolation and Ising model studies for finite size neutral matter show behavior which is opposite to the one seen in the present work. EOS Collaboration